Believe it or not I am lucky enough to have a guy friend who also likes to graze. Our favorite place for grazing is the bar at Craft. We like to pull up two stools at the corner of the beautifully chic bar and snack on veggies while we taste wines. The special thing about Craft is that the menu - designed brilliantly by Tom Colicchio of Top Chef fame - allows you to choose your veggies and your meat/fish/poultry separately so that you create your own dish to an extent. Well, as I'm sure you can imagine, I go heavy on the veggies and ignore the rest for the most part.
So this friend and I typically arrive around 9pm and start with a glass of white wine or champagne, always accompanied by a plate of roasted baby carrots. Craft has the best carrots we have ever had in NYC. You get a nice helping of sweet orange and white baby carrots with the tops still on. We usual finish them and then ask for more when we move on to the rest of our food and the red wine.
The last time we went, we also tried the shishito peppers - also roasted and whole - and the sauteed tatsoi ("tat-so-ee"). I never even heard of tatsoi before - and I know a lot of vegetables - so I had to ask the bartender about it. She explained it as "similar to spinach but with a more subtle flavor" and it was just that. It's an Asian leafy green, which means its good for eyesight, and its delicious. We also had the quail appetizer, which I'd say was just mediocre.
In the past, we have grazed on the cauliflower (excellent), the polenta (a little weird without a meat accompaniment), the zucchini (a bit bland), the sauteed bok choy (awesome), and the hen of the woods mushrooms (awesome, awesome; so much flavor and so grotesquely attractive, if that makes any sense). Best of all, they change the menu as the seasons change so there's always a new veggie to try.
As far as more filling options go, I've had the scallops and the striped bass on two different occasions. They're always good and simple, but I just go crazy for the veggies. If you can find a guy - or a girl - to graze with you at Craft I say definitely definitely overdose on the veggies (and also pay some attention to the expertly chosen wines).
- The Grazer
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